Education
With regard to the poor and dilapidated infrastructure of the Portavue and Rylands primary schools:
(1) (a) What are the scheduled maintenance plans for these two schools and (b) how much is budgeted for each;
(2) what (a) is the number and (b) are the details of the schools that have reported (i) classes and/or (ii) any other sections of the school that are not used due to safety concerns and (iii) how long have these concerns existed;
(3) (a) what (i) is the number and (ii) are the details of the schools that are built or partly built with asbestos and (b) what are the health concerns associated with this building method?
(1) (a) The current Draft Infrastructure Programme Management Plan (IPMP) for the next 2022/23 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period includes Rylands Primary School as one of the schools identified to receive planned, preventative maintenance. The list does not include Portavue Primary School.
While neither school has requested specific maintenance, the Department will engage with both schools to determine what, if any, additional maintenance needs they have, and how these can be addressed.
(b) The current indicative allocation for the Rylands Primary School Preventative Maintenance project in the 2022/23 financial year is R3.7 million. The actual cost will more accurately be determined following the on-site assessment of the condition of the existing facility.
(2) (a) Neither of these schools have reported any sections of the school being out of use due to safety concerns.
(b) All sections of the two schools are in use.
(3) (a) Neither of these two schools are on the WCED’s list of schools confirmed to be partially or wholly constructed of asbestos-containing components.
(b) Asbestos-containing infrastructure components do not necessarily pose a risk to learners, staff members, or the public. Where asbestos-containing infrastructure components are in a relatively sound condition (being intact) there is no risk. Where asbestos-containing components are broken or have frayed edges, the potential does exist for release of asbestos fibres into the air.
The degree of risk relates to the concentration of airborne asbestos fibres per millilitres of air. The threshold for the legislatively permissible concentration of airborne asbestos fibres is 0.01 fibre per millilitre of air.
